Giant Magellan Telescope: The next generation optical facility for Taiwanese astronomers

Shiang-Yu Wang^1*

¹Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

* Presenter:Shiang-Yu Wang, email:sywang@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw

The Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) are the next generation ground based OIR facilities. With 30 meter class apertures and cutting-edge technologies, the ELTs are expected to have ~ nine times more collecting power as well as three times better spatial resolution compared with the existing 8-10m telescopes. Combining with the advanced instrumentation, these gigantic telescopes will make breakthroughs for exoplanet research and will revolutionize various astronomical studies.
Joining one of the ELT projects has been the consensus of the Taiwan astronomy community after series of discussions. However, the investment for joining an ELT is so huge that we have been monitoring the progress of the three ELT projects in the world, especially on the financial viability. Recent development of the NSF decadal survey's highest priority ranking for US ELTs, indicate that the financial challenges may be steadily resolving. Notably, among the global ELT initiatives, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) stands as the sole project that welcomes smaller partners, with stakes below 10%.
As a result, we have engaged in negotiations with the GMT project to secure our position as a minor partner. In this presentation, we will provide details of the current status, anticipated performance, and our strategic roadmap for joining the GMT project.

Keywords: optical and infrared, telescope, facility